I’ve taken this week off work to try and get on top of ‘life’ including of course spending some more time in the Magic Garden. It was cool & grey again today but the threatened rain didn’t happen. I pulled out some weeds, deadhead some more geraniums and checked in on the sweetpeas and climbing beans to persuade them to twine upwards rather than their preferred horizontal. I also potted up the two ‘patio’ tomato plants, the bigger of which I’ve put with the courgette in the pop-up cloche. Ben spent sometime in the wilderness at the back before settling into his favoured fabric trough
Sunday
It was surprisingly cool today and grey but the rain has held off. I spent some time in the back corner pulling out nettles and chopping down the spent geraniums. I tied up the blackberry again and inspected the gooseberry bushes. I am pleased with how its settling out as a border but remains in the ‘wild’ corner. I’m very pleased with the white foxgloves as these came from collected seed from home.
I like the leaves & look of the red shiso plant that I bought yesterday but I’m not entirely sure about its taste - its quite astringent.
The garden is full of bees at the moment - I rescued this one from the spider’s web & cleaned the silk off its legs.
Saturday 4th June 2022
I spent this afternoon in the Magic Garden enjoying the sun.
I bought some anti-duck weed treatment for the wee pond today having taken out another bucket load. I’m pleased that the flags are coming out so there is a bit of yellow to be seen on the far-side of the pond. On the ‘rock’ garden the fox & cubs are out - I always think of my Dad when these flower as he called them the Gairloch weed and gave me the first ones for my garden.
The flag irises complement the blue dutch irises under the rowan tree. These always cheers me with their beautiful blue. I planted out a new scabious today too with another pretty blue at the front of the patio and further round a Chinese foxglove or dragon flower
I planted out the violet-podded climbing beans and potted up the yellow courgette plant to go into the pop-up cloche at the back of the garden. The other courgettes are not big enough to come outside yet. I hope the cloche survives a while as its a bit nippy at night still.
Platinum Jubilee bank holiday
I have had a lovely day off and spent the afternoon in the Magic Garden with Ben - I did a fair amount of weeding, tidying and took an enormous amount of weed out of the pond. Even after removing a bucket full of weed there was still loads left. The valerian has seeded all over the garden now from its place by the pond but as its loved by the bees I tend to let it be.
I’m quite pleased with the progress of the cauliflowers and the broccoli at the back of the garden and my salad troughs are doing really well and so far are not slugged so may be the copper tape does work. Ben wasn’t impressed and snoozed the afternoon away
Thursday 2nd June
Despite the Bank Holiday I was working today and watching blue sky through the theatre windows. I was sorry to come home to wet although it was just showers. I still had a quick look round and enjoyed a few moments of watching the birds at the feeders.
Wednesday
After another long day at work it was rather lovely to come home and sit in some sunshine in the Magic Garden. The nematodes against my sawfly caterpillars arrived today so I drenched the gooseberry and surrounding garden with them. I will follow up tomorrow with another drenching with the rhubarb leaf drench
I find something new to see each day - today the little aquilegia under the rowan tree gracefully swinging in the breeze while Ben was watching the bees
Tuesday
Its been disappointingly chilly today and damp. The bees weren’t deterred though and besides enjoying the white & blue centaurea & cirsium, have been helping pollinate the raspberries - I’ve totally failed on the photography front when it comes to this so only a blurred image!
My soft fruit crop is looking promising with the blackcurrants forming and the blueberries are still blooming too. I will get a little gooseberry crop but nothing on the vast amounts I used to get from my poor battered bush. I drenched it again in rhubarb leaf spray again and hopefully will be able to apply the nematodes tomorrow evening when I come back from work.
Monday 30th May
It rained while I was at work today so I got damp when I opted to sit on the garden rocking chair this evening. Ben wisely chose to enjoy the sun sitting on the coldframe. The view from the chair is a bit different and I noticed a few new blooms out - the main ones of note being the Dutch irises & my wee white jacob’s ladder. I’m pleased that my broad beans are looking healthier as the salad cropping continues.
A bit of birdwatching followed as the goldfinches in particular appreciated the fill up of the nigella seed. The robin seemed to appreciate the suet balls being topped up too. I did a bit more caterpillar squishing and doused the bush again in rhubarb leaf spray.
Sunday
It was wet this morning when I toddled off to work so it was a pleasant surprise to come home to find it had dried up and even has occasional sunshine.
The usual distractions meant that I was busy with the macro photography. I also did a bit of real gardening including starting to plant gladioli bulbs out. I’m planning to get the remainder in tomorrow and Tuesday together with some peacock orchids. I think they will need to go into troughs as I’m running out of empty garden.
I had a very satisfactory, if probably futile, session squashing caterpillars on the gooseberry bushes and then I made a rhubarb leaf solution and doused the bushes in it. Hopefully this will help and the nematodes should arrive soon so I can get better protection in place.
Sunny Saturday
I’m aching all over this evening having been in the Magic Garden all afternoon. I tidied up around the gooseberries and back corner including tying up the blackberry. The poor gooseberry has got sawfly caterpillars trying to defoliate it - I squashed a whole lot and have ordered some nematodes to try and control the problem.
Ben has stayed around me all day which has been lovely, snoozing while the bees enjoyed the garden especially the chives and alliums scattered through the Magic Garden.
I planted out the celeriac in to a new trough and watered it heavily. I then harvested some more salad and some rhubarb.
Friday
I had a busy day at work and so was rather late home. It was sunny but still quite windy so I did another tour of the garden retrieving things and putting things back upright. The garden is looking a little battered but still in lush green with enough colour to show promise for when the wind eventually stops.
The stocks that I rescued yesterday ar looking ok in their new pot. The other main task of the day has been to water the multitude of seedlings and newly sown.
Wind damage again
I spent the afternoon waiting in for the men who came to fix the security alarm - they were rather late and rather foiled by the system’s fault. Meantime I had spent the afternoon potting on the golden globe buddlea cuttings and some of the young plants gracing my window sills. Ben went and sat by the potted apple trees - I’d had to move them together because the wind was blowing them over again.
I opened the backdoor to find that the tiered troughs had blown over. I rescued three nasturtiums but have just had to accept the loss of the planned crops.
Its lovely to see the late spring / early summer flowers starting to appear with the start of the geranium next to the rhubarb.
Windy Again!
Home this evening to it blowing a hooley but it is beautifully sunny. I did a quick tidy up and returning things to where they should be!
The sunshine catches my summerhouse perfectly in the evening. The wind was really blowing things around in the garden but it didn’t stop Ben enjoying his catnip patch.
Tuesday 24th May
We’ve been having really heavy showers today which somewhat curtailed my activities. I did plant out two supermarket dahlias & the catmint I bought as a teat for Ben on my way home yesterday (Nepeta Six Hills Giant) into the back border.
I planted out the broad beans into a trough and hope they survive better than the first lot I planted into the ground - hopefully Ben won’t sit on them! In between rain showers, I enjoyed watching the bees still enjoying the bloody cranesbill and the new cirsium. I also had my first proper tea of leaf salad this year.
Back Home
Not much to post about today as I drove back down to Newcastle today through at times torrential rain. We don’t seem to have had that level of rainfall here although the garden is damp and it started to rain gently when I went to sit with Ben in the Magic Garden. Early night for me & hoping for a bit of dry weather this week to get my new plants in and to plant out the forest of seedlings and young plants.
Tulach Ard
My parents have created a garden over the last 30 years creating a wooded part with rhododendrons and azaleas s well as native planting. The flowers this year are spectacular - my father would have been delighted. The bluebells are true natives - their bells are all the same direction as well as the beautiful blue
The sides of the drain ditch are now covered in ajuga binding it together as well as being another source of blue in the garden. Dad’s grevillea is blooming & its spider flowers are feeding the bees above the main garden.
Dad planted a cordon fence of apples for their blossom rather than the apples - in fact they are good fruiters despite the northern climate but they are lovely at the moment - later than the ones in the Magic Garden
Inverewe Gardens
If you have never been to Inverewe, you really should and this is the time of year to do it as it has the most amazing rhododendrons & azaleas. Mum and I had a bit of a damp walk round but there was so much bloom around it was wonderful. I was originally inspired to garden by a visit as a young child one summer holiday and have been hooked by plants ever since.
The walled garden was looking lovely today too despite the rain.
Friday 20th May
I took my mum to the local plant nursery today, the Garden Cottage Nursery at Tournaig Lodge, Poolewe. I bought mum some alpines and had an extravagant moment for my own - as well as these I bought another broom Cystisus ‘Killney Salmon’ and a scented geranium.
Cirsium r, ‘Atropurpureum’
Dodecatheon pulchellum ‘Red Wings’
Epimedium ‘Akebono’
Pelargoniium Vancouver centennial
Thursday 19th May
I’m back up in Badachro for a long weekend and so am enjoying azaleas and rhododendron flowers and bees galore. The NW Highlands seem to be a perfect place for these as the peat soil is of course acid.
Wednesday 18th May
I was meant to have driven home today but life got in the way. Instead I spent some money and bought two new lavender plants for the front door pots. I also bought some old fashioned cottage pinks to do a little gap filling and then Ben and I had a happy few hours in the Magic Garden together.
I put out fresh prayer flags too as the old ones are just worn through - there are now three generations of them across the garden.
I pruned out some of the woodier bits of the spirea now its finished flowering and I’ve taken some cuttings to see if I can propagate it. They are all wrapped up in a plastic bag.
